Does Wipro
give dating allowance to its employees or not? The issue that
got a wide news coverage after an employee’s wife filed a
case that her husband started neglected her after Wipro started
the allowance has taken a new turn.

The Wipro
employee in question, Gaurav Nigam, on Saturday alleged that
it was his wife, Tripti, who was actually beating him and
he was not the guilty party.

Gaurav
narrated his side of the story to the Sunday Times of India
over phone from Delhi. He said he is not paid any dating allowance
by the company and that his wife is drawing the name of his
company chairman Azim Premji just to “harass me".

Gaurav
(32) has been working with Wipro for six years as a technical
consultant. He has taken a temporary transfer to the Gurgaon
office, to fight the case, which has been filed by his wife
in the Kanpur Magistrate’s court.

Gaurav
alleged that his wife used to hit him and push him when they
got into an argument. “She also used to pressure me to transfer
the ownership of my Sarjapur Road house and car into her name.
When I would refuse, she would beat me.”

Gaurav
said Tripti had complained that he, his father, mother, sisters
and brothersin-law had gone to her Kanpur house to kill her.
Based on her complaint, the police arrested his parents and
he had to get them released after filing a plea in the court.

But, he
says, he can prove that she was still in Bangalore on that
date. “She got a Reliance phone connection installed and activated
that day.” “But why is she dragging Premji’s name into the
case, when there is no such thing as dating allowance in our
company” he asked. “All I have is the basic salary component,
a transporation allowance, a special allowance and Wipro Benefit
Plan.”

Tripti
and Gaurav, who are married for four years now, are living
separately for the last 18 months. Gaurav filed for a divorce
in April, and she filed a case against him under the Domestic
Violence Act this October after the law came into force.

Gaurav
said the problem started soon after he got married in December
2002. “She wanted everything on her terms and often threatened
to book me under Section 498 of the IPC,” he said.

“When
I was going to the US on a long-term assignment, she said
she was accompanying me. But on the last day, she refused
to come with me and left for her parent’s house in Kanpur,”
he said.

“When
I was still in the US, she came back to Bangalore and started
complaining to my employer, Vanitha Mahila Sahayavani and
to the US Consulate in Chennai. When I came back in January,
I filed for a divorce in Lucknow.

“She filed
a case in the family court, saying that the apartment which
I have in Bangalore was funded by her father and she took
an injunction on Feb. 22. She took up a job in Bangalore,
she worked for oneand-a-half months and then went off to Kanpur,”
Gaurav explained.

In her
petition, Tripti has alleged that Wipro’s dating allowance
“showed their (company’s) complicity in encouraging his extra-marital
affairs".

She has
claimed that Gaurav started neglecting her and the home after
he started getting the allowance. Gaurav denied that he had
any affair with any woman.

The Kanpur
Magistrate’s court has issued summonses to Premji and company
human resources head Pratik Kumar, asking them to appear before
it on November 29.